The present invention relates to a carbon film, and particularly relates to a carbon film containing, in addition to carbon, fluorine and hydrogen, a carbon film containing, in addition to carbon, hydrogen and nitrogen, a carbon film containing, in addition to carbon, hydrogen and at least one of metal, metal compound, silicon and silicon compound as well as a method of forming the same, an object coated with a carbon film, and a method of manufacturing the same.
Lubricants such as oil and wax have been conventionally applied to surfaces of objects, which are in slide contact with each other, such as various kinds of machine parts and members, which are in slide contact with each other, for ensuring good sliding property, suppressing wearing of the objects themselves and other purposes. However, such lubricants are-soon consumed so that it is difficult to keep it. In some cases, flowable lubricant such as oil cannot be used even if lubricity is required.
In these days, therefore, such manners have been proposed that a material such as fluoride such as polytetrafluorethylene or the like, which has high lubricity and can stably keep the lubricity for a long term, as compared with conventional lubricating oil and others, is applied in advance to the object surface to form a non-flowable lubricating coating film, and that a sheet or film made of lubricating fluoride is attached to the object surface, e.g., by adhesion. These manners have been widely available.
A carbon film has been known as a material, which provide a necessary hardness to the object surface while providing certain lubricity. The carbon films have been utilized as coating films of machine parts for the purpose of applying a resistance against wear.
Among carbon films, a DLC film (Diamond-Like Carbon film) is superior in wear resistance, electrical insulation, water repellency and others, is optically transparent, has such a feature that a thickness thereof can be adjusted to provide good adhesion without impairing flexibility of a carbon-film-coated base member itself if the base member is flexible, and can be easily formed at a relatively low temperature by employing a plasma CVD method or the like. Owing to these advantages, it is used as a coating film for various kinds of objects.
However, the lubricating fluoride such as polytetrafluorethylene does not have a sufficiently high hardness. Accordingly, the foregoing coating film, sheet film or the like, which can be more stable for a long term than lubricating oil or the like, is liable to be worn, or is liable to break and drop from the main body of the object due to its softness.
Some objects have surfaces formed of elastic materials, depending on their use. However, the foregoing coating film, sheet, film or the like, which are formed on such elastically deformable portions, are liable to be peeled off due to elastic deformation of the objects.
Pieces of the lubricating material, which dropped from the object, may cause unexpected situations such as an operation failure of a machine, for example, when they bite the sliding surfaces.
The foregoing carbon film is superior to the lubricating fluoride in wear resistance, adhesion to the object and others, but is sometimes required to have improved sliding property (lubricity) with respect to another object.
The carbon film is sometimes required to have further improved hardness for further improving the effect of improving the surface quality of the carbon-film-coated base member when the carbon-film-coated base member have a large resistance against deformation so that the carbon film is not required to follow the deformation of the base member to a large extent, it is not necessary to give consideration to such following property.
An object of the invention is to provide a carbon film, which has a larger hardness and a better wear resistance than lubricating fluoride in the prior art, and has a better adhesion to an object than the lubricating fluoride, as well as a method of forming the same.
Another object of the invention is to provide a carbon film, which has a larger hardness and a better wear resistance than lubricating fluoride in the prior art, has a better lubricity than a conventional carbon film, and has a better adhesion to an object than the lubricating fluoride, as well as a method of forming the same.
Still another object of the invention is to provide a carbon-film-coated object, which is coated with a carbon film having a larger hardness and a better wear resistance than lubricating fluoride in the prior art, and having a better adhesion to the object than the lubricating fluoride, and thereby has a good durability, as well as a method of forming the same.
Yet another object of the invention is to provide a carbon-film-coated object, which is coated with a carbon film having a larger hardness and a better wear resistance than lubricating fluoride in the prior art, having a better lubricity than a conventional carbon film and having a better adhesion to the object than the lubricating fluoride, and thereby has a good durability, as well as a method of forming the same.
The invention provides a carbon film and a carbon-film-coated object as well as a carbon film forming method and a method of manufacturing a carbon-film-coated object, which are described below.
(1) A carbon film containing fluorine and hydrogen, wherein
a spectrum determined by FT-IR (Fourier Transform Infrared) spectrum analysis exhibits such a relationship that a ratio (IR.Cxe2x80x94F)/(IR.Cxe2x80x94H) between a peak area (IR.Cxe2x80x94F) in a range from 1000 cmxe2x88x921-1300 cmxe2x88x921 resulting from Cxe2x80x94F bonds and a peak area (IR.Cxe2x80x94H) in a range from 2800 cmxe2x88x921 to 3100 cmxe2x88x921 resulting from Cxe2x80x94H bonds is larger than 0, and a spectrum determined by XPS (X-ray photoelectron spectrum analysis) exhibits such a relationship that a ratio (F1S/C1S) between a peak intensity resulting from F1S and a peak intensity resulting from C1S is larger than 0 and smaller than 3.
(2) A carbon film containing hydrogen and nitrogen.
(3) A carbon film containing hydrogen and at least one of metal, metal compound, silicon and silicon compound.
(1) A carbon-film-coated object coated with the carbon film described in the foregoing item (1) in [1].
(2) A carbon-film-coated object coated with the carbon film described in the foregoing item (2) in [1].
(3) A carbon-film-coated object coated with the carbon film described in the foregoing item (3) in [1].
(1) A method of forming a carbon film containing fluorine and hydrogen, in which a carbon film formation base member is located in a deposition chamber, a gas containing a hydrocarbon compound gas and a carbon fluoride compound gas is supplied as a deposition material gas into the deposition chamber, a predetermined pressure is kept in the deposition chamber, plasma is formed from the gas by application of an electric power, the carbon film containing fluorine and hydrogen is formed on the base member from the plasma, and a mixing ratio between the hydrocarbon compound gas and the carbon fluoride compound gas in the supply of the gases is adjusted to form the carbon film providing a spectrum, determined by FT-IR (Fourier Transform Infrared) spectrum analysis, exhibiting such a relationship that a ratio (IR.Cxe2x80x94F)/(IR.Cxe2x80x94H) between a peak area (IR.Cxe2x80x94F) in a range from 1000 cmxe2x88x921-1300 cmxe2x88x921 resulting from Cxe2x80x94F bonds and a peak area (IR.Cxe2x80x94H) in a range from 2800 cmxe2x88x921 to 3100 cmxe2x88x921 resulting from Cxe2x80x94H bonds is larger than 0, and a spectrum, determined by XPS (X-ray photoelectron spectrum analysis), exhibiting such a relationship that a ratio (F1S/C1S) between a peak intensity resulting from F1S and a peak intensity resulting from C1S is larger than 0 and smaller than 3.
(2) A method of forming a carbon film containing hydrogen and nitrogen, in which a carbon film formation base member is located in a deposition chamber, a gas containing a hydrocarbon compound gas and a carbon fluoride compound gas is supplied as a deposition material gas into the deposition chamber, a predetermined pressure is kept in the deposition chamber, plasma is formed from the gas by application of an electric power, and the carbon film containing hydrogen and nitrogen is formed on the base member from the plasma.
(3) A method of forming a carbon film containing hydrogen and at least one of metal, metal compound, silicon and silicon compound, in which a carbon film formation base member is located in a deposition chamber, a gas containing a hydrocarbon compound gas and a gas forming at least one of metal, metal compound, silicon and silicon compound is supplied as a deposition material gas into the deposition chamber, a predetermined pressure is kept in the deposition chamber, plasma is formed from the gas by application of an electric power, and the carbon film containing hydrogen and at least one of metal, metal compound, silicon and silicon compound is formed on the base member from the plasma.
(4) A method of forming a carbon film containing hydrogen and at least one of metal, metal compound, silicon and silicon compound, in which a deposition chamber formed of a plasma producing chamber and a plasma processing chamber connected thereto is employed, a carbon film formation base member is located in the plasma processing chamber, a sputter target formed of at least one of metal, metal compound, silicon and silicon compound is located in the plasma producing chamber, a hydrocarbon compound gas is supplied into the plasma processing chamber, and a sputtering gas is supplied into the plasma producing chamber; and
(a) plasma is formed from the gas supplied into the plasma producing chamber by application of an electric power, the plasma as well as sputter particles generated by sputtering effected on the sputter target in the plasma are supplied into the plasma processing chamber to decompose (form plasma from) the hydrocarbon compound gas supplied into the plasma processing chamber, and the carbon film containing hydrogen and at least one of metal, metal compound, silicon and silicon compound is formed on the base member, or
(b) plasma is formed from the gas supplied into the plasma producing chamber by application of an electric power, sputter particles generated by sputtering effected on the sputter target in the plasma are supplied into the plasma processing chamber, plasma is also formed from the hydrocarbon compound gas supplied into the plasma processing chamber by application of an electric power, and the carbon film containing hydrogen and at least one of metal, metal compound, silicon and silicon compound is formed on the base member.
(1) A carbon-film-coated object manufacturing method of manufacturing an object coated with a carbon film, in which a predetermined object is employed as the carbon film formation base member in the carbon film forming method described in the above item (1) in [3].
(2) A carbon-film-coated object manufacturing method of manufacturing an object coated with a carbon film, in which a predetermined object is employed as the carbon film formation base member in the carbon film forming method described in the above item (2) in [3].
(3) A carbon-film-coated object manufacturing method of manufacturing an object coated with a carbon film, in which a predetermined object is employed as the carbon film formation base member in the carbon film forming method described in the above item (3) in [3].
(4) A carbon-film-coated object manufacturing method of manufacturing an object coated with a carbon film, in which a predetermined object is employed as the carbon film formation base member in the carbon film forming method described in the above item (4) in [3].